Friday, November 4, 2016

Why the evacuation of migrants from Stalingrad to Paris will not be the last – Release

A sad record for the thirtieth. At 6 o’clock this Friday morning, the authorities have started the evacuation of the encampment of migrants of Stalingrad, in the north-east of Paris. Between 3 000 and 3 500 people could benefit from this operation “shelter”, according to the official terminology, the highest figure since the first evacuation of this type, in June 2015, on the outskirts of the metro La Chapelle.

In nearly eighteen months, the face of the area near to the gare du Nord has been profoundly modified. Every day, we cross there the exiles of the world, trying to survive on a piece of sidewalk. Was Stalingrad, on the central median of avenue of Flanders, the situation is critical. They are many thousands, originating from Sudan, Afghanistan, Eritrea, seek shelter there, in a cloud of multicolored tents, sometimes also under a simple tarp and a piece of cardboard. There are emergency : winter is approaching and the cries of warning of local residents, fed up with the slum, open to the sky, are all the more pressing.

For the authorities also, the stakes are high. A week after the dismantling of the Calais “jungle”, it is to show that they remain in control of the situation. As the evacuation of the slums in the Pas-de-Calais has not resulted in deferral massif of migrants to the capital, and has not mobilized all the capacities of available accommodation.

Yet, according to our information, Jean-François Carenco, the prefect of the region Ile-de-France, has had to turn in all directions to achieve got hold of some 4 000 beds in order to relocate the migrants from Stalingrad. A sign that jobs are scarce, hotel rooms have been reserved, and gyms in the île de france should be requisitioned. A solution that has already proven, in the past, its inappropriate to provide a social support quality. During the preparatory meetings, Carenco, half-jokingly, has even raised the possibility of requisition of the Grand Palais.

“we need to make shelter in the emergency and ensure that people do not sleep in the street”, points out Aurélie El Hassak-Marzorati, assistant director-general of Emmaus Solidarity, which will participate in the operation at the side of the government. Just hoping that the option of a grammar takes as less time as possible. Still, this new decommissioning will probably not be the last in the capital. Several obstacles stand in the way indeed on the road to the government.

Because the flow of arrivals does not heaps

in recent weeks, between 80 and 100 people arrive daily in Paris. A figure higher than during the summer, when it revolved around a sixty per day. This means that the migrants manage to evade the police checks, in particular to the franco-Italian border, before returning to the capital, well served by public transport.

as the community links are important, since nearly a dozen years for the Afghan people. Migrants also know that they will find here the help of volunteers, and may even benefit, at the cost of long weeks in the streets, operations of housing (like the one this Friday), combined with a facilitated access to the asylum application.

Because Paris is now the main point of attraction in France

The shanty town of Calais, which was the next step for all those wishing to join the United Kingdom, no longer exists. And the large police presence in the north of France, deters probably a number of people to go there, for the time being. In the meantime, they wait, therefore, in the north of Paris, where some of the networks of traffickers also operate.

in addition, the dismantling of the “jungle” has also caused the departure of hundreds of people refractory to evacuation by coach to accommodation centres throughout the territory. Some of them are now living in the tents of the avenue de Flandre.

Because the rest of the system is a bottleneck

the evacuation of The camp of Stalingrad, which is expected to last all day Friday, has also for objective to allow the opening, probably next week, the humanitarian centre wanted by Anne Hidalgo. This one, located porte de la Chapelle (XVIIIe arrondissement, will house between 400 and 500 people. But for ensure that it is not attacked from its very first hours, it was “empty” Paris of the main camp.

In theory, the centre of the Paris city council had to fill a void : one of the first home for newcomers on the French soil. The beneficiaries are supposed to be kept five to ten days, before being referred to appropriate entities, including the CAD (centres for the reception and guidance) for those wishing to apply for asylum in France.

also read: in Paris, life in the margins

But the current flow of arrivals in the capital is so high that it might put the new structure in overheating. The ministry of the Interior continues to turn on to ensure “fluency” of the device, that is to say, to ensure that migrants move from one accommodation centre to another according to their administrative situation. A challenge. At the end of the year, France is expected to be less than 40 000 places in reception centres for asylum seekers (Cada), then they should be close to 100, 000 to apply for refugee status in 2016…

To Pierre Henry, director general of the association France Land of asylum, today, we must consider the establishment of a “ecosystem, virtuous on the whole of the territory in order to avoid the phenomena of concentration”. His idea : “Create transit centers in the major French cities, each with the same level of service, to allow for the registration of the records of migrants in a reasonable time.”